The winter
chill has impacted real estate sales volumes across the
country in June but has done little to halt price rises in
most regions, according to the latest data from the Real
Estate Institute of New Zealand (REINZ), source of the most
complete and accurate real estate data in New Zealand.

In June the median price across the country rose by 5.7%
to a record equal median of $560,000 up from $530,000 the
same time last year. Additionally, the New Zealand excluding
Auckland median price remained at a record equalling figure
of $460,000 in June up 7.0% on June 2017. However,
Auckland’s median price decreased by 0.7% year-on-year to
$850,000 down from $856,000 last year.

New
Zealand’s most expensive three territorial authorities are
Auckland City with a median of $1,010,000, North Shore City
with a median of $975,000 and Queenstown Lake District with
a median of $908,000.

Three regions saw record
median prices during June – Waikato (+11.7% to $525,000),
Wellington (+12.3% to $595,000) and Marlborough (+11.4% to
$440,000). Additionally, regions with strong annual
increases included Gisborne (+26.9% to $330,000) and
Hawke’s Bay (+15.3% to $430,000).

However, the
number of properties sold across the country decreased by
1.6% to 6,034, down from 6,131 in June 2017. This was the
result of significant decreases in sales volumes in 8 out of
16 regions and a 9.9% decrease in new property listings
year-on-year.

Bindi Norwell, Chief Executive at
REINZ says: “While Jack Frost may have got his icy grip on
sales volumes, he has not been able to extend this to prices
as New Zealand’s median price increased by 5.7%
year-on-year. The lack of housing supply continues to put
pressure on prices in the majority of regions across New
Zealand, with 12 out of 16 regions seeing a price increase
since June last year. Until we solve the supply issue, house
prices are likely to continue rising, particularly as the
OCR remains low and the banks continue dropping interest
rates.

“Again, we’re seeing this two-tier market
across the country where prices are remaining stable in
Auckland and Canterbury but rising in most other parts of
the country,” continues Norwell.

“From a volume
perspective, we’ve seen the usual winter slowdown impact
the market. Sales volumes fell significantly year-on-year on
the West Coast (-25.7%) which was the lowest sales count for
14 months, Waikato (-14.0%) also the lowest sales count for
14 months, Wellington (-10.6%) the lowest number of
properties sold for 5 months and Otago (-8.3%) the lowest
sales count for 11 months.

“Despite this, there
were some regions that saw a strong increase in sales
including Hawke’s Bay (+23.0%), Tasman (+22.8%) and
Manawatu/Wanganui (+14.1%),” continues Norwell.

REINZ House Price Index (HPI)The
REINZ House Price Index for New Zealand, which measures the
changing value of property in the market, increased 3.8%
year-on-year to 2,706. The HPI for New Zealand excluding
Auckland increased 6.7% from June 2017 to a new record high
of 2,561.

The Auckland HPI increased 0.9%
year-on-year to 2,883 showing that despite the annual
decrease in median price the market is still in a strong
position.

The REINZ HPI again saw 11 out of 12
regions experience an increase in their HPI over the past 12
months, highlighting the continued strength of the property
market.

Again, the only region not to experience an
increase was Canterbury, which experienced a decrease of
1.1% year-on-year.

This month the Gisborne/Hawke’s
Bay region had the highest annual growth rate of 14.0%,
followed by Otago and Southland in second equal place with
both regions seeing annual growth rates of 10.7%.

Days to sellThe median number of days to sell a property
nationally increased by 2 days from 36 days in June 2017 to
38 days in June 2018. For New Zealand excluding Auckland,
the median days to sell increased by 1 day from 36 to
37.

Auckland saw the median number of days to sell a
property increase by 2 days to 40 days (up from 38 in June
2017), but it remained the same as last month.

Regions with the biggest decrease in the median number
of days to sell were West Coast -68 (from 128 to 60),
Gisborne -6 days (from 39 to 33) and Taranaki -2 (from 37 to
35).

Regions with the biggest increase in the median
number of days to sell were Southland +8 (from 31 to 39),
Tasman +7 (from 33 to 40) and Waikato +6 (from 36 to
42).

AuctionsAuctions were used in 11.3% of all sales across
the country in June, with 684 properties selling under the
hammer – this is down slightly from June 2017, when 14.2%
of properties (870) were sold via auction.

For the
fifth month in a row, Gisborne had the highest percentage of
auctions across the country with 27% (or 15 properties) in
the region sold under the hammer – down from 32% (19
properties) in June 2017. Auckland saw the second largest
percentage of auctions on 21% (386 properties) down from 24%
in June 2017 (446 properties) and the Bay of Plenty on 12%
(54 properties) down from 25% (100 properties) in June
2017.

InventoryThe number of properties available for sale
nationally decreased by 3.8% from 23,507 to 22,605 – a
decrease of 902 properties compared to 12 months ago. This
is the lowest level of inventory for 9 months (since
September 2017).

Only 3 regions across New Zealand
saw annual increases in inventory levels. For the fourth
month in a row, Nelson saw the largest percentage increase
in inventory levels with a 24.0% annual increase (from 310
to 385), followed by Waikato (+9.9% - an additional 153
properties) and Canterbury (+2.6% - an additional 86
properties).

• Gisborne – down 28.7%• Manawatu/Wanganui –
down 25.6%• Southland – down 22.2%• West Coast
– down 17.9%• Taranaki – down 13.9%.Again, the
Wellington region has had the lowest number of weeks’
inventory across the whole country with only 7 weeks’
inventory available to those looking to purchase in the area
– although this is up 10.4% on the same time last
year.

Inventory in the Hawke’s Bay region
continues to remain scarce with only 8 weeks’ inventory
and Gisborne and Manawatu/Wanganui don’t fare much better
with only 9 weeks’ inventory each.

Price
BandsThe number of homes
sold for less than $500,000 across New Zealand fell from
46.3% of the market (2,839 properties) in June 2017 to 41.9%
of the market (2,527 properties) in June 2018 which is
reflected by the overall increasing median price across the
country.

The number of properties sold in the
$500,000 to $750,000 bracket increased from 26.5% in June
2017 (1,622 properties) to 29.4% in June 2018 (1,773
properties). At the top end of the market, properties sold
for more than $1 million increased marginally from 13.3% of
the market in June 2017 (815 houses) to 14.4% of the market
this year (868 houses).

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